Reflective Journal

[mousemilf-deactivated20250508]

i think the aesthetic echo chamber created by tumblr is more dangerous than the political one bcs im self aware enough to kno my politics r radical but then me and the girlies are on here reblogging body horror and very weird erotic poetry and i get offline and interact w a real person and jokingly say something like fungus is tangibly divine in the way it facilitates the eternal dance of creation and destruction which is really creation as or by destruction and theyre like what the hell are you talking about freak. the aesthetic barrier between me and a girl in a vineyard vines tee is literally insurmountable. i find the trout to be a very nietzschean fish

[prokopetz]

You wouldn’t think that flamingoes are extremophiles just from looking at them. It’s like somebody tried to build the vertebrate equivalent of that fungus that lives inside nuclear reactors, and ended up with a gangly pink dinosaur with a spoon for a face.

[calloutnevvegas]

For everyone in the comments asking how flamingos are extremophiles:

Flamingos can survive in low oxygen, high altitude, high temperatures, low temperatures, high alkaline, they can and will drink boiling water and they can be completely frozen at night and still get up the next morning

Don’t fuck with flamingos

[eyebau-deactivated20220221]

ferret

[cinamon-topography]

What if my mother told me… she has no idea who I am

What if the night before my  birthday… at 23:59, time stops for everyone except me

What if I looked up and… saw a completely different set of stars than usual

What if my kitchen cupboard… contained a portal to another world, but it was too small for me to go through

What if the President of The  United States… was a twitter bot that used polls to make decisions

What if I picked up a toy gun  and… a group of criminals saw me with it and assumed I was one of them

[cinamon-topography]

Prop render

Made this over a week ago but never posted it.

I started out with a box and moved around the vertices to get hexagonal shapes. Then I extruded them to get the blade, grip, and guard. I moved around the extra vertices from the cube to get the little crystal points. The reason I used a box this way is that it already has good topology so the geometry can’t get super chaotic. I usually don’t remember to take screenshots of the progress so getting this amount of documentation from me is a luxury. Enjoy.

I watched this tutorial for the texture. I struggled a bit to find the option for dispersion on my version of vray. It had a different name and only worked with gpu rendering.

[cinamon-topography]

Prop sketch

Here’s a quick sketch I had to make in paint.The design of this sword is inspired by how clusters of crystals look. I wanted to make a crystal sword because I'm going to make a 3d model and thought it would be more interesting to texture than metal.

I can't decide if it actually kills demons or if it does something else, but here's one version:

Audrey: "I've always seen morality as black and white. Good and evil. You've taught me that it's not that simple. If you're okay, maybe some of the demons I've killed were too. How can you forgive me so easily when I've killed your friends? How can I forgive myself? Have I been a bad guy this whole time?"

Lilith: "Wait, did you think the sword actually kills demons? They just lose the ability to manifest on earth"

[cinamon-topography]

Villain sketch

Even though Lilith is both the love interest and the villain, I still needed to make a third character for the assignment. I was originally going to make some kind of half assed demon boss. Then inspiration struck. My neighbor has an aggressive little chihuahua that genuinely scares me. I thought it would be funny to make a hellhound based on her. I think my drawing came to life cause shortly after I drew it, I could hear the dog going ABSOLUTELY FERAL outside. She barked nonstop for several minutes, I’ve never heard anything like it before.

Audrey can’t ever bring herself to kill her because:

Audrey: "It's a dog! I can't kill a dog even if it is a chihuahua. You're a demon can't you tell it to sit or something?"

Lilith: "That bitch has a higher rank than me. I can't tell my superior to sit"

Audrey: "But you can call your superior a bitch?"

Lilith: "She is literally a female dog, dumbass"

[cinamon-topography]

Love interest sketch

In the same way that I used square shapes for Audrey, I included triangles in this character. Part of me wants to make different versions of the sketch to try out different things, like for example different horns. I also don’t want to end up overthinking it and getting stuck on that part of the process.

She’s half demon and half human. This could be metaphor for bisexuality. The fact that she’s half demon means she starts out being enemies with Audrey. She just wants to have fun and do her own thing, but has to follow orders from other demons. I considered naming her Ruby, obviously after the league I’m in on duolingo (the joke is that 1: it’s not obvious at all and 2: it would be really weird if that was the actual reason (it’s not)). I ended up going with Lilith because 1: it’s a cool and demonic name and 2: it means I can do this:

Audrey: “I’m starting to lose track of how many times we’ve tried to kill each other, but I’ve realized I have no idea what your name is”

Lilith: “It’s Lilith”

Audrey: “Wait, you’re Lilith? The Lilith?”

Lilith: “No. Of course not. When a human is called Eve do you assume it’s the original?”

After a while she leaves the other demons because she wants to be free and gets tired of not being respected because she’s half human

“You’d think a society created by rebels would be more free. Instead I have to follow orders that allegedly came from someone who hasn’t been seen in person for centuries. And none of them respect me. They see me as less of a demon, and not a whole hybrid. Did you know my mom was a satanist witch? Probably not. Human magic is very different from demonic magic. It’s very subtle, there’s no flashy stuff like fireballs. It gently nudges the universe in the right direction. That might not seem like much, but it can be surprisingly powerful. Because I have both human and demonic magic in me, they amplify each other and create something new”

I’m imagining this monologue happens during/after the scene I’ll be drawing

[cinamon-topography]

Heroine sketch

I started out with some square shapes to match the vibes of my character, but they got rounded out a bit to more resemble actual human anatomy. Many people are too cowardly to add actual visible muscles on female characters. It is considered “manly” and “unsexy”. Swords may be lethal weapons but it doesn’t hurt to have a pair of guns as well. I think I might bulk up the rest of her body a bit to match the arms. Might do something different with the nose. And she definitely needs an eyebrow scar.

At one point I realized I need to come up with names for my characters. I chose Audrey because it means noble strength and she is definitely strong. She is lawful good and obsessed with doing the right thing to the point of losing herself. She spends all her time either at the gym or hunting demons. Her emotions are extremely repressed. On a lighter note, she is a female himbo (no, not a bimbo). Pure of heart, dumb of ass, and big muscles.

[cinamon-topography]

Observational drawing

Traditional drawing with pencil is definitely out of my comfort zone. I really like the amount of control I get when I paint digitally. I do however understand that I won’t always have a computer and tablet with me at all times and analogue drawing is a very valuable skill. It’s also a bit different to look at a physical object instead of an image because the perspective will change if you move your head. This could also be an advantage if you want the ability to choose and control the angle. I personally like knowing the position will stay consistent throughout the whole drawing. On this drawing I had too much focus on the shading and not enough on the proportions and shapes and stuff. I’m disappointed in myself because I could have done better if I didn’t rush past the boring part. It wouldn’t be too hard to fix digitally but I guess that’s cheating

[cinamon-topography]

Creative Animation Film Overview

I think it’s kinda artsy. It looks a bit like something that could be in a music video, a visualization on windows media player, or made by someone why is experimenting with animation techniques.

It’s a fun little animation and it’s interesting to see something that old. Something about it, maybe the dark colours and blurriness, makes it almost a bit creepy somehow? It is also unusual to see a film that’s completely quiet.

A cute animation for little kids. The use of classic cartoony physics and tropes work well.

The link didn’t work but i think i managed to find the right video. It’s really creative and interesting. Unfortunately, the 3d shader looks pretty outdated but it is an “old” film in 3d animation years.

Really hard not to focus on the unnecessary underboob in the background like why did they include that? I guess the plant growing stuff probably was impressive in 2006? 

https://vimeo.com/4612004

Almost didn’t see this one on the list and I can’t embed more than 5 videos in a post. A funny video with good use of comedic... comedy or something...

I know my answers are super short and it probably seems like I don’t take these activities seriously but I am genuinely horrible at writing. One time i failed an exam even though I studied for it because I couldn’t get a single word down on paper and I panicked.

[cinamon-topography]

Introduction

How you chose the digital art of 3D short animated film:

My first choice was VFX, but I didn’t get in. Because I needed something to do other than being home all day I looked for other stuff to apply to. That’s how I ended up studying 3d design and animation. Since it was just a one year class it wasn’t a huge commitment and it wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn’t go well. I ended up liking it much more than i thought I would so I chose to continue into the second year and I also plan on going abroad next year for a full bachelor degree. I still have a preference for VFX, but I also enjoy sculpting and texturing. When we started learning about texturing I realized I had done it before when I used to make custom clothing for sims 2. Even though I was young and the stuff I made wasn’t the best, it still gave me a bit of a head start.

Your creative influences:

I’m a bit like a baby who doesn’t understand object permanence. When I haven’t thought about something in a while I tend to forget it exists, so when asked about favourites I struggle to remember far beyond the most recent stuff I’ve enjoyed.

Your previous education - and how this relates to your journey to the 3DFP course:

It took some time to figure out what I wanted to do. I studied computer science for a bit but found out it wasn’t for me and I dropped out.

Current use of software and hardware:

Last year’s curriculum contained:

3ds max substance painter photoshop zbrush after effects premiere

I also learned a bit of houdini independently.

When it comes to hardware I just use a computer and my ancient wacom tablet cause if it aint broke dont fix it

Favourite animated films/characters or studios:

Well my favourite animated series has to be She-Ra and the Princesses of Power but I don’t know if that counts since it’s 2d.

Your skill level and attitudes towards industry and how this has developed since before the 3DFP course:

Uhhhh I draw sometimes and I’ve seen some documentaries and stuff about how movies are made